ITHACA, N.Y. - The Ithaca College men's soccer team scored two goals in the first five minutes of the game, then two more in the first nine minutes of the second half on the way to 5-0 victory over Bard in a Liberty League game on Saturday afternoon.

The Bombers, who are new to the Liberty League this year, improved to 5-5-1 overall, and 1-3 in conference play. Bard fell to 3-7-1, 0-3-1.

The game got off to a bad start for Bard. Ithaca senior Eric Hepler (Pilesgrove, NJ) stepped around a defender and ripped a shot into the left corner, beating Taylor Bond for a 1-0 lead just 71 seconds into the game. About three-and-a-half minutes later, it was 2-0 on a goal by Nate Schoen (Wauwatosa, WI), the assist coming from Luke Karen (Huntington, NY).

It was 2-0 at halftime with Ithaca holding a 7-2 advantage in shots and a 4-0 edge in corners.

Hepler made it 3-0 just over five minutes into the second half, the assist going to Drew Cohn (Short Hills, NJ), and it was less than three minutes after that goal before Nate Mansfield (Vestal, NY) made it 4-0 after he collected a long ball in the box, stopped short, stepped around a defender and beat Bond to the far post.

The Bombers added a penalty kick goal by Justinian Michaels (Sparkill, NY) in the 79th minute to close out the scoring.

Bond made seven saves, and freshman Logan Leppo, who replaced Bond early in the second half, also made seven saves.

Up next for the Raptors is a Liberty League game vs. St. Lawrence on Friday at 4. Follow it live right here.